President Goodluck Jonathan today nominated Godwin Emefiele, the Managing Director of Zenith Bank, as the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He replaces Lamido Sanusi who was suspended under controversial circumstances earlier. While Sanusi has promised to challenge his suspension in court.

New CBN Governor

He is the Group Managing Director, Zenith Bank Plc, a position he has held since August 2010. Until then he was the Deputy Managing Director of the bank, having been appointed into that position in 2001.

Emefiele has been on the bank’s management team since inception and has held various management positions in the bank, including serving as the Bank’s Executive Director in charge of Corporate Banking, Treasury, Financial Control and Strategic Planning.

It was gathered that until he took over as Group Managing Director, Emefiele was directly responsible for all the Group’s local subsidiaries, Treasury and Correspondent Banking, and Multilateral, Conglomerates, & Private Banking.

He also had responsibilities for direct supervision of majority of the bank’s branches in Lagos and Northern Nigeria.

Emefiele has over twenty-six (26) years banking experience and holds a B.Sc and an MBA in Finance both from the University of Nigeria Nsukka. Before commencing his banking career, he lectured Finance, Bank Management, and Insurance at the University of Nigeria and University of Port Harcourt respectively.